


night everlasting

by shiromantic



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Childhood Friends, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Light Angst, M/M, Pining, Pre-Canon, rated general but glenn does swear like once lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 19:31:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21021077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shiromantic/pseuds/shiromantic
Summary: The only one who can bring Sylvain home is Felix.





	night everlasting

**Author's Note:**

> me: has a midterm next week  
my brain: SYLVIX WEEK SYLVIX WEEK SYLVIX W  
this is for day 1: childhood :')
> 
> EDIT 10/19/19: rating changed from teen to general!! but glenn does swear and there  
are mentions of child abuse as a warning.

It’s been hours – and Sylvain still hasn’t come home.

He was supposed to come back with his brother, Miklan, from a hunting expedition. When Miklan came home, he exclaims that Sylvain ran off and he had to return before he got caught up in the blizzard as well. This didn’t get a good reaction from Margrave Gautier who began to scream at Miklan and then promptly ordered a search team for his other son.

The search for Sylvain delayed the meeting between Felix’s father and the Margrave – and more importantly, delayed Felix from seeing his best friend. Now he waits in front of the fireplace with Glenn who’s flipping a knife idly between his fingers.

“Do you think they found Sylvain yet?” He asks. Glancing out the window, it was all white.

Glenn shrugs. “Probably.”

“When do you think they’ll be back?”

He switches from flipping his knife with his right hand to his left. “Soon.”

“That’s what you said an hour ago!” Felix exclaims, slamming his little fists into the carpet.

Glenn sighs, pocketing his knife. He sits on the lounge chair in his riding clothes still and is tall enough so that his feet reach the ground unlike Felix. He wonders when he’ll get taller than Glenn – or even the same height as him. He’s still the shortest out of Ingrid, Dimitri and Sylvain.

“Maybe if you didn’t ask so often, he’d be home by now.” Glenn teases with a wry grin.

Felix frowns, and goes quiet. He looks out the window and sees that, somehow, the snow has gotten worse. He wonders if the search team got lost too. Do they even know where Sylvain’s favourite places to hang out? Do they know to search by the tree that is the half-way point between Felix’s house and his?

“Oh, c’mon, Fe.” Glenn says. He’s speaking in the voice whenever Felix cries – but he’s not even crying. Nope, not at all. “You know I didn’t mean that.”

“I know that!” His brother never means any of the things he says. He’s kind of like Sylvain in the way but Glenn was loyal to Ingrid only. Sylvain wasn’t engaged – not yet anyway.

“Sylvain is a strong kid. He’s lived here his whole life – blizzards happen all the time.” Glenn grins, slipping out of his chair to sit beside Felix on the carpet. He wraps his arms around Felix, and he leans in subconsciously into his broad chest. “He’ll make it out. Don’t worry.”

“Don’t get his hopes up, Glenn.”

Without hearing him enter the room, there was Miklan. He leans against the doorframe, still dressed in his hunting garb. He didn’t dress like Sylvain or even Glenn – his clothes always looked ragged or second-hand. As if they didn’t even bother making custom clothing for him.

Felix didn’t like Miklan. He always bullied Sylvain – but he never apologized or hugged him afterwards. In fact, he didn’t see Sylvain with Miklan unless they had to be together. He never asked though – it didn’t seem like something Sylvain liked talking about anyway.

Glenn sighs, rolling his eyes. “What do you want Miklan? Don’t you have better things to do?”

“Oh, but what’s better than this? Hanging out with my second-family?” Miklan coos. He now walks towards them with his heavy boots clunking against the floor. He was smiling but the scar across his face changed the expression into something sinister instead.

“I don’t know. What do you usually do in your spare time? Eat dirt?”

Miklan’s expression curdled sour and the scar across his face curved to match his snarl. It almost resembled a scythe. “The brat got what he deserved. He’s probably buried by now.”

“Don’t say that!” Felix cries out, jumping up out of Glenn’s grasp. Even standing, he didn’t even reach Miklan’s chest. “It’s – it’s all your fault! If you were stronger, you – you could’ve saved Sylvain!”

He scoffs. “Why would I want to do that?”

“Huh?” Felix exclaims. “You – he’s your brother!”

Miklan laughs – and it made Felix want to shrivel into nothing. “You really don’t know anything, do you? I’ll tell you a secret.”

He goes down on one knee, eye-level to Felix. His eyes were gold but there was nothing in them. Miklan was empty inside and out. In a faux whisper, he says, “I killed Sylvain.”

_What?_

“Miklan.” Glenn’s voice cuts through the thick air. “That’s enough.”

He stands up and away from Felix. Glenn goes to stand between him and Miklan – but his empty gold eyes still stared at Felix from behind his brother’s shoulder. Felix lifts up his chin in defiance and tries to stop his legs from shaking.

_I killed Sylvain._

“Come on, Glenn.” Miklan says. “He’s a growing boy – he can’t be coddled forever. He has to know the realities of the world one day.”

“Reality? Everything you’re saying is complete bullshit.” Glenn spits out. His brother is the best knight of Fodlan – even if he was slightly shorter than Miklan, his stance was steady, and his body was lean from training. “You expect me to believe that crestless trash like you could kill someone?”

Miklan’s teeth grind at his last words. He barely manages to hiss through his teeth: “Rot in hell, Fradalrius. I’ll rip your tongue out.”

Glenn’s head tilts. “You’re a disgrace to the Gautier household. No better than a common thief – and you’ll never amount to anything.”

Miklan’s fist clenches and he throws his fist in a swinging arc with a roar. Felix cries out in warning, but Glenn’s hand shoots out and grabs Miklan by the neck. The yell gets caught in Miklan’s throat and he chokes on himself. Both his arms fall to his side limply and Glenn’s fingers curl around his neck before pushing him away roughly.

He stumbles and falls to the ground with a gasp. He begins to sputter and cough, holding onto his throat, for the next minute. When he finishes, Miklan looks up from the ground with tears trailing down his cheeks.

He looks like he is about to say something before he scrambles to his feet and leaves the room without another word. They hear his clunking feet and his swearing down the hall until it’s gone. Glenn turns to Felix and kneels, cupping his cheek with the same hand he used before.

“Fe? Are you okay?” He asks softly.

_I killed Sylvain._

“He’s not really dead, right?” Felix whispers. “Sylvain? He’s alive, right?”

“Of course, he is.” Glenn murmurs. “He’s alive.”

Tears begin to flood his vision – and all he can see is Miklan’s terrible face. Felix hates him – he doesn’t want Sylvain to ever be near him again. He’s a terrible person.

“What if – what if Miklan wasn’t lying?”

Glenn shakes his head. “He was.”

_“You don’t know that!” _

Felix didn’t even get to say goodbye.

He doesn’t want to sit by the fire anymore. Not when his best friend, his Sylvain, could be dead and cold in the snow. What if they don’t even find his body? What are they going to bury instead?

Something in Glenn’s expression changes. Softly, he says, “You love him, don’t you?”

Love? Felix doesn’t know – _is he_ _allowed to love Sylvain?_ He nods anyway.

Then, Glenn ruffles his hair and is standing suddenly. A bright grin stretches across his face; it’s a strange expression to see in this situation. “Come on then. Get ready.”

Felix blinks. “Get ready?”

“We’re going to save Sylvain.”

-

They go to the stables and take Glenn’s horse – the same one that they rode on together this morning when they first arrived at the Gautier estate. Glenn helps Felix with his riding boots and coat, buttoning it all the way to his nose.

“Do you know where Sylvain might be?” He asks.

“The hill.” Felix replies immediately. “Our hill – the one between our houses. When we get lost, we meet at the hill.”

Glenn helps Felix onto the horse first before swinging himself onto the steed in the front with the reins. Outside the barn, the wind howls and nothing can be seen but an endless winter. Felix grabs onto Glenn and holds as tightly as he can even if his hands don’t reach all the way around.

“Sorry, Princess.” Glenn murmurs, petting the horse’s mane with a gloved hand. “It’s important.”

Then, they’re off.

The first thing Felix notices is the ice. The snowfall whips into his face with the wind and it feels like daggers against his exposed skin. He closes his eyes and buries his face into the back of Glenn. He clutches tighter as Glenn yells for Princess to go faster as her hooves gallop against the thick snow.

_Just a little longer, Sylvain_, he thinks. _We’re coming for you._

Even with his riding pants, the saddle begins to freeze from the cold and makes his legs go numb. With the speed they’re going, he tries to squeeze himself around the horse to prevent himself from falling but he still jostles around. If he were to fall at the speed they’re going, it wouldn’t bode well.

This morning, Glenn joked that he should get Felix off the horse and have him try to catch up instead. Rodrigue scolded him for it and his brother just rolled his eyes before apologizing. It took hours before they reached their destination and they spent most of the time chatting with each other: Felix asking about Glenn’s travels and then their father only intercepting whenever Glenn would curse – which was often.

“A perfect knight in every way – until he opens his mouth, that is.”

Glenn barked out a laugh. “C’mon, father. I’m not a bard. A knight is measured by his skill in the field, not by his pretty words.”

Felix reminisces this time when the snow was barely on the ground and he could still see in front of him. Was that truly the same day as today? Now, Glenn is deathly silent. Felix wonders if Sylvain would still want to spar as he had planned this morning.

“Felix.”

He makes a noise into the back of Glenn, eyes still closed.

“Is that him?”

The snow made it difficult to see but in the distance is the hill with its tree. There was a ring of dirt where the leaves shaded it from the snow. In the safety of the shade is a boy. His hair is the colour of fire.

“Sylvain!” Felix yells. His words are swallowed in the blizzard – but Sylvain looks up. He scrambles up to his feet and begins to jump, waving his arms around. Glenn urges the stallion to go even faster.

They reach the foot of the hill in minutes. Glenn pulls harshly against the reins and Felix nearly falls off the horse from the abrupt stop. Usually, he’s helped down by his brother but clumsily, he throws himself off the horse and into the snow. He falls on his knees, but the snow is deep enough to lessen the pain.

Felix, with his little legs, runs toward Sylvain. The wind blows into his face and snowflakes cloud his vision as he makes his way towards his red beacon of light. Their little hill is a mountain. It feels like years until he’s in Sylvain’s embrace. He expects warmth but Sylvain’s coat is frozen and hard against his cheek.

All the fear and pain pour out as he sobs into his cold chest. His body shakes from the temperature and his crying but all he feels is Sylvain in this moment. _Finally. _

“Why did you run away?” He sobs. “Why didn’t you come home, Sylvain?”

Sylvain’s hand runs through Felix’s matted hair from the ice and snow. “I got lost.”

“I thought you – you – were dead!”

Sylvain says nothing. He just keeps petting him with his hands that have gone blue. The continuous motion helps Felix calm down until his sobbing quiets into hot tears that run down his face.

“You saved me,” he finally murmurs. His voice is warm and everything Felix needs to hear. “You’re always – saving me.”

“I knew they couldn’t find you.” Felix sniffled. “I – they don’t know you like I do. They don’t know about our hill.”

“Why did you think I stayed here? I knew you’d come for me.”

In that moment, in his embrace, Felix knows. He knows that it doesn’t matter if he isn’t allowed to love Sylvain – because he can’t control it. He can’t control this feeling – the one that consumes him until he’s nothing but warmth and happiness. And he wouldn’t change that for anything.

**Author's Note:**

> i hoped you enjoyed this quick fic!! i'll try my best to keep up with sylvix week but no promises OTL  
every kudos and comment is appreciated!  
twitter: aikusoren (will contain spoilers)


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